Reign of Brayshaw (Brayshaw High) - Meagan Brandy Page 0,39
Collins body shifts toward me, movement over his shoulder catches my eye.
Bass moves from behind a tree, takes a step forward only to pause a moment later.
“Raven.” Captain’s steady voice hits my ears.
With a masked face, I turn to him. “Baby.”
His eyes slide between mine, a blank slate for the others to see – concern clear as day to me.
I’m tired of that, too.
I’m sick of the concern, the worry, the eggshells that seem to have been scattered around me the last few days. I’ve been treated as the weak doll, and then to my own horror, I slightly filled that mold. I fell into a brand new type of fuck-it mode, let the jaded me fall away and allowed these people to run their mouths while I brushed it off, because fuck them, right?
Wrong.
This is my home now, was supposed to be all along, and now it’s more confirmed than ever before it forever will be.
I made a choice and we have to live with it. There’s no room for unnecessary emotions in a place like this. I gave away one Brayshaw while gaining another. I can’t sit here and claim I lost. It could be worse.
The Gravens, they wanted a Brayshaw, but in the end, gained two.
We’ll show them what that means.
These people, they fell into a comfort they shouldn’t have, privileged assholes who forget – this is only high school and once it’s over? They’ll be nothing but the rich of this town. Our town.
I push against Captain and silence surrounds us.
His brows drop low as he studies me, and slowly his hand slides around me. He pulls my body into his, moving us back a few spaces, his mouth hitting my ear.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
“We’re losing respect by the second. Collins is back, Leo too. Maddoc isn’t here and in their eyes, I’ve traded more times than I can count now.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Show them we aren’t falling apart, make them think we’re stronger than ever.”
Cap pulls back and looks at me.
“We should be. That’s the point of this right, join the families? Create a power couple?” I whisper, my gaze flicking between his. “A couple in general.”
A sharp pain shoots up my spine at the words, but I welcome it.
His fingers tighten against me, his expression not changing. “You can’t even say it, can you?”
“Why should I have to, Cap?” I shake my head.
At that, his brows wrinkle and he moves his lips back to my ear to hide it. “You don’t know this side of me, how I am with a girl who’s mine, so I’ll fill you in on one thing now.” There’s a slight rumble in his voice. “Words, Raven. I need them.”
“I’m standing here, already yours, right? So what’s the point?”
“Wrong and that in itself is the point.” His words come out sharper this time. “You’re not mine, Raven. Despite the promise we made, you’re not.” He hesitates before adding, “Not yet.”
Not ever.
That’s what we’re both thinking but don’t say aloud.
A moment later, the silence surrounding us is quickly overtaken.
First, it’s music, then the screech of tires. Gasps follow, then low whistles and laughs. Heads snap my way then the other and both mine and Cap’s follow.
A black SUV, identical to the one I drove here in pulls up beside Captain’s. Royce and Victoria both stare at me with tight eyes, but mine are locked on the passenger seat of Maddoc’s ride as it opens and a girl with sleek straight, blonde hair chopped at the collarbone steps out. I’ve seen her before, though the hair is new.
Graven Preps queen bee.
She steps around the hood, Maddoc meeting her there and the two walk over to Royce and Victoria like it’s any other day and she belongs.
It’s not and she sure as fuck doesn’t.
I embed my fingers into the skin of Captain’s chest, and apparently subconsciously attempt to move past him, but he grips me tighter, forcing my feet to stay planted where they are.
He holds firm, his way of trying to steady me on the inside, but my body is numb, my face blank, my mind void.
And somehow my chest still stings with the prick of a thousand needles.
I want to rip her head off and stick it back in the Barbie box it came out of.
The girl holds her hand out to Victoria but gets a bored blink in return. Royce and Maddoc exchange a fist bump and then the two shift toward us.